Fast-Paced

Showing 626–650 of 662
  1. #2 in the Lydia Strong Series

    Fresh from a tour promoting her last case, reclusive true crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn, "and all the other girls in need of rescue." Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigator's intuition starts buzzing. She takes it on. But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone powerful, someone anxious enough to engineer the reappearance of one of Lydia's first--and most dangerous--adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatiana's disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead, his unfinished business from years ago.

  2. Ties That Bind

    3.53

    #3 in the Amanda Jaffe Series

    Lawyer Amanda Jaffe uncovers the trail of a fiercely secret fraternity of powerful and dangerous men behind a political conspiracy A series of seemingly unrelated deaths culminate in the gruesome murder of a U.S. Senator just days before he is going to be his Party's nominee for the Presidency. Portland hometown hero Tim Kerrigan—Heisman trophy winner and now District Attorney—prosecutes the case. Representing the alleged murderer is Amanda Jaffe, still recovering from the traumatic events that concluded the sensational New York Times bestseller Wild Justice. Her client claims to have information linking the Senator to a mysterious circle of high-ranking judges, public officials, and South American drug lords—an affiliation that is rumored to go back 30 years—known as the Courthouse Athletic Club. Amanda must hope her client can stay alive long enough for the truth to be revealed.

  3. Decorated NYPD Officer John Coglin always thought his picture on the front page of the newspaper would be one for the scrapbook. That was before he had the bad luck to be forced into a witness-free, kill-or-be-killed confrontation with a drug-dealing thug. It's of no help to him that the incident took place during the run-up to a bitter mayoral election campaign, and that his adversary was sixteen years old and black. Now, instead of another commendation, Coglin is staring down the barrel of a media- and politics-stoked murder rap. But on the eve of his sure conviction arrives a fateful telephone call. It's not the governor, but his long-lost uncle, Aidan O'Connell. A veteran of the IRA and a recently released guest of San Quentin Penitentiary for armed-to-the-teeth robbery, Aidan offers his nephew a pardon that has nothing to do with lawyers. Coglin is about to find out that the type of amnesty Uncle Aidan is proposing is the kind that involves a beautiful but dangerous Mafia widow, a car trunk full of M-16s, and thirty million dollars in jewels smack dab in the middle of Rockefeller Center.

  4. Bad Connection

    3.71

    How does it feel being twenty-six and about to become a multimillionaire? New York City telephone repairman Sean Macklin has just tapped into a fortune in stock-market day trading -- by picking up secrets from private conversations over the line. But when he taps into a powerful CEO's plans for a clean merger at any cost, Sean hears more than he should...and his seamless get-rich-quick scheme quickly spirals into a cutthroat game of blackmail, corruption, and violence. Now Sean and his NYPD officer brother, Ray, are the bait in a ruthless corporate conspiracy. And Sean Macklin's dream of a better life has just become a fatal nightmare....

  5. Labyrinth

    4.12

    Marine biologist and cave researcher Whitney Burke vows that she will never set foot underground again. Still traumatized by the tragic loss of her assistant on her last expedition, Whitney can only watch from a distance when her husband and daughter agree to join a NASA-sponsored caving trip. When the expedition is seized by a band of criminals—effectively holding her family hostage—Whitney must surmount her all-consuming fear and put everything on the line for her family. Battling her own terror and the paralyzing elements of the subterranean atmosphere will take all the knowledge and strength Whitney has in this high-stakes tale of adventure.

  6. Courting Trouble

    4.06

    #7 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    Anne Murphy is the redheaded rookie at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates, and one morning she wakes up to front-page headlines proclaiming LAWYER MURDERED—above her own picture. To find the killer, Anne's got to play dead—if she wants to stay alive. Though she tries to go it alone, she quickly realizes she'll have to trust people she barely knows—colleagues who hate her, a homicide squad that wants her out of the crime-fighting business, and a new love who inconveniently happens to be opposing counsel.

  7. 2nd Chance

    4.30

    #2 in the Women's Murder Club Series

    A brutal madman sprays bullets into a crowd of children leaving a San Francisco church. Miraculously-or was it intentionally?-only one person dies. Then an elderly black woman is hung. Police homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer senses a connection and together with medical examiner Claire, assistant D. A. Jill, and Chronicle reporter Cindy, finds a link that sends a chill through the entire nation. This killer's motives are unspeakable.

  8. Angel Fire

    3.83

    #1 in the Lydia Strong Series

    The childhood murder of her mother has turned Lydia Strong into a woman obsessed with bringing brutal killers to justice. The reclusive, bestselling true-crime writer and investigative consultant now spends her life chasing monsters. When three adults--loners, drifters--go missing, no one seems to notice except for Lydia. Enlisting the help of her friend, former FBI agent Jeffrey Mark, Lydia starts an investigation of her own. But when someone raises the stakes and goes after Lydia--just as fifteen years ago when she put the FBI on the trail of her mother's killer--the real hunt begins.

  9. The Associate

    4.07

    #2 in the Amanda Jaffe Series

    Daniel Ames is living the American dream. Though born into poverty and living on the streets by the age of fifteen, Daniel has overcome every obstacle -- and now is an associate at Reed, Briggs, Portland's most prestigious law firm, earning more money than he ever imagined possible. But when Aaron Flynn enters his life, Daniel finds himself caught between his towering ambition and his bedrock idealism. Flynn, a charismatic civil litigator, sues Geller Pharmaceuticals -- Reed, Briggs's biggest client -- for manufacturing a drug that he claims causes unspeakable birth defects. Daniel is certain the claim has no merit -- until a memo written by a Geller scientist is found, detailing the shocking results of a study that implicates the company in a horrific lie. Could Daniel unwittingly be helping Geller cover up a dark secret? As he begins to investigate, his world comes tumbling down around him. His work is sabotaged, he's accused of professional incompetence, and he's fired. Twelve hours later the man who fired him is murdered. Daniel is arrested. With help from two women, including lawyer Amanda Jaffe (whom we met in Wild Justice), Daniel scrambles to clear his name and save his reputation -- and in the process unearths a trail of deceit that leads back to a series of unsolved kidnappings seven years earlier. But someone doesn't want this trail explored, and Daniel becomes the target of a vicious killer who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being revealed.

  10. The Up and Comer

    4.08

    Poised to become his Manhattan law firm's youngest partner, up-and-coming attorney Philip Randall takes risks and a mistress—his best friend's wife. Then the game changes. The stakes get higher. Someone begins following Philip's every move, waiting for the chance to strike--with a vengeance. Soon, Philip is at the center of a murder investigation that can end his career, his marriage, and his fabulous life.

  11. Six Days

    4.04

    A week is a long time in politics, but six days can destroy democracy... It should be the happiest days for former special forces agent Drew Connor. Out walking in New Hampshire's White Mountains with his girlfriend Sheila Cass, he has butterflies in his stomach and an engagement ring in his pocket. Then a thunderstorm hits, and they take shelter in what Sheila thinks is a relay station for a state utility. But when Drew enters the building, he realizes they have stepped into something far more sinister. Bullet-proof checkpoints. Telephone hotlines. A sign by a map that reads INTERNMENT CENTERS. And on a whiteboard a large, handwritten message: CASE SHILOH: ON 9/19 WE TAKE HER BACK! Drew's instinct is to get Sheila out as quickly as possible, and when they stop at a general store, and the police open fire without asking questions, his worst fears are confirmed. Someone wants them dead for what they have seen. And as Drew and Sheila discover, they have stumbled on a plot to kill the president and overthrow the American government, a plan that is to take place in just six days time. With the conspirators claiming they are terrorists on the run, Drew knows it is going to be hard enough just to stay alive, let alone put a stop to this most deadly of political schemes...

  12. 1st to Die

    4.30

    #1 in the Women's Murder Club Series

    Each one holds a piece of the puzzle: Lindsay Boxer is a homicide inspector in the San Francisco Police Department, Claire Washburn is a medical examiner, Jill Bernhardt is an assistant D.A., and Cindy Thomas just started working the crime desk of the San Francisco Chronicle. But the usual procedures aren't bringing them any closer to stopping the killings. So these women form a Women's Murder Club to collaborate outside the box and pursue the case by sidestepping their bosses and giving each other a hand. The four women develop intense bonds as they pursue a killer whose crimes have stunned an entire city. Working together, they track down the most terrifying and unexpected killer they have ever encountered—before a shocking conclusion in which everything they knew turns out to be devastatingly wrong.

  13. #6 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    Judy Carrier takes the case of her career to defend Anthony Lucia, fondly known as "Pigeon Tony," who freely admits to killing his lifelong enemy in order to settle a personal vendetta. Her client's guilt, however, is only the beginning of Judy's problems. The victim's family wants revenge and is determined to finish off Pigeon Tony and Judy before the case goes to trial. Then there's Pigeon Tony's hunky grandson, who makes Judy think about everything but the law. In a case steeped in blood and memory, it will take brains and a lot of luck to save Pigeon Tony. But if anyone will see justice done, it's this gutsy girl who will risk everything to win—including her life.

  14. Line of Vision

    4.06

    Marty Kalish is a young man suffocating in the heat of an affair with a married woman named Rachel. When Rachel's husband disappears one night, Marty is one of the first to be questioned. With few likely suspects, the police arrest him for murder. We know Marty was outside their home that night. We know he has a motive. We know he's guilty of something. But is it murder? Everything we have learned—about Marty as a man, his affair with Rachel, and the night in question—comes from Marty himself. But as the trial unfolds to a jaw-dropping conclusion, we learn that there is more to the truth than one man's narrow line of vision.

  15. Wild Justice

    4.16

    #1 in the Amanda Jaffe Series

    Thursday: Subject is still combative after four days of applied pain, sleep deprivation and minimal food. Vice squad detective Bobby Vasquez, for months on the trail of a slippery underworld figure, receives an anonymous tip that directs him to a mountain cabin. He races through the idyllic Oregon woods, expecting to close the book on a long-standing vendetta. What he finds instead opens a Pandora's box of horror that will haunt him to his dying day. 8:10: Subject bound and gaffed and placed in upstairs closet at end of hall. Turned out lights in house, drove off, then parked and doubled back. Watched from woods. Within hours, Vincent Cordoni -- a brilliant surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse -- is arrested for a heinous crime. Facing a seemingly insurmountable wall of evidence, he turns to Portland's top criminal defense attorney, Frank Jaffe-who, along with his ambitious daughter, Amanda, must put on an inspired defense. Amanda's first taste of criminal defense work is as intoxicating as it is chilling, but it raises moral questions she's loath to address. Is she defending an innocent man? Or is she using her considerable skills to set a monster free? Then Cardoni disappears under bizarre circumstances. Four years later, a second set of murders has begun .... 8:55: Subject exits house, naked and barefoot, armed with kitchen knife. Remarkable strength of character. Breaking her will be a challenge. Has Cardoni resurfaced to ply his deadly trade anew? Is there a copycat killer? Or has the real killer been someone else all along? The police will do everything they can to stop Cardoni -- but they have to find him first. Following a twisting trail of clues, including a harrowing diary that clinically records the killer's horrible deeds, Amanda Jaffe and Bobby Vasquez join the hunt-and themselves become targets of the twenty-first century's first genuinely monstrous psychopath.

  16. Moment of Truth

    4.21

    #5 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    When attorney Jack Newlin discovers his wife dead in their home, he's convinced he knows who killed her—and is equally determined to hide the truth. He decides to frame himself for murder, and to seal his fate he hires the most inexperienced lawyer he can find: a reluctant rookie by the name of Mary DiNunzio from the hot Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates. But hiring Mary may turn out to be his biggest mistake. She doubts Jack's confession, and her ethics and instincts tell her she can't defend a man who wants to convict himself. Smarter, gutsier, and more persistent than she has any right to be, Mary sets out to prove what really happened—because, as any lawyer knows, a case is never as simple as it seems. And nothing is ever certain until the final moment of truth.

  17. Ghost Dance

    3.90

    When struggling filmmaker Patrick Gallagher fishes a mutilated corpse out of a river, his retreat from life takes a sinister turn. After destroying his own career, Patrick had hoped to lick his wounds in the quiet of a small New England town, but the ghostly secrets of Lawton, Vermont prove all too ominous to allow for serenity. In the course of the investigation, Patrick befriends local policewoman Andi Nightingale, who is haunted by her own troubled past. As the suspense builds, Patrick and Andi are drawn into the shocking legacy of the town's shared-guilt over a crime kept hidden for a century...

  18. #4 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    Accused of committing cold-blooded murder, Alice Connolly wants one lawyer to defend her: Bennie Rosato. But the no-nonsense Philadelphia criminal attorney isn't interested—until she meets the accused killer face to face—and can't believe what she sees. Alice claims she's Bennie twin—and the woman does bear an uncanny resemblance to her. But Bennie grew up an only child. She doesn't have a sister. Or does she? Agreeing to take the case, Bennie plunges into the mystery of the murder and into the depths of her own past—a twisting search for justice and the truth that will keep the seasoned attorney guessing and leave readers breathless until the verdict is in.

  19. Point of Origin

    4.32

    #9 in the Kay Scarpetta Series

    The devastating fire tore through the horse farm, destroying everything it touched. Picking through the wreckage, Dr. Kay Scarpetta uncovers human remains—the work of an audacious and wily killer who uses fire to mask his brutal murders. And when Scarpetta learns that her old nemesis, Carrie Grethen, has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is somehow involved, the investigation becomes personal. Tragedy strikes close to home. And Scarpetta must match Grethen's every move with one of her own to douse the inferno of evil that threatens everyone around her. . . .

  20. Judge Richard Quinn is young, idealistic, and honest to a fault. That's why he's handed the most sensational homicide case in Oregon history. Locked in a race for the U.S. Senate, Ellen Crease gunned down the intruder who murdered her wealthy husband. In a single, brutal instant she became a widow, a victim, and a hero. Yet disturbing questions remain. What secrets did the man who started his fortune running mortuaries keep that might have cost him his life? What about the son frozen out of his will? Or his wife's political enemies? And what about Ellen Crease herself? Soon it becomes clear that a deadly plot of murder, blackmail, passion, and double cross is unfolding around Judge Richard Quinn. And unless he breaks the rules, justice will not only be blind, it will be the final victim.

  21. Rough Justice

    4.10

    #3 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    Criminal lawyer Marta Richter is hours away from winning an acquittal for her client, millionaire businessman Elliot Steere. Elliot is on trial for the murder of a homeless man who had tried to carjack him. But as the jury begins deliberations, Marta discovers the chilling truth about her client's innocence. Taking justice into her own hands, she sets out to prove the truth, with the help of two young associates. In an excruciating game of beat-the-clock with both the jury and the worst blizzard to hit Philadelphia in decades, Marta will learn that the search for justice isn't only rough—it can also be deadly.

  22. Hornet's Nest

    3.75

    #1 in the Andy Brazil Series

    Deputy Chief Virginia West likes and respects her boss, Hammer, but with an increasing number of visiting businessmen being murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she finds it hard to accept Hammer's edict that a rookie reporter should ride on patrol with her to better relations with their citizens. Her worst fears are confirmed when the reporter, Brazil, presses the button to activate the boot-release rather than the siren on their first outing. He's not the only blight on her life right now: her cat's angsty, her hormones are misbehaving. her opposite member in the uniformed division is behaving like a jackass, the radio despatcher is determined to trip her up, the D.A. is in the middle of a hot battle with Hammer and the visiting judge's bladder problems are causing havoc with the trial schedule. And orange colored corpses keep turning up on her patch.

  23. Legal Tender

    4.05

    #2 in the Rosato & Associates Series

    Benedetta "Bennie" Rosato is a maverick lawyer who prosecutes police misconduct and excessive-force cases, and business at her firm has never been better. Then, without warning, a savage murder tears the firm apart. All evidence points to Bennie, who has motive aplenty and an unconfirmable alibi. Her world turns upside down as the lawyer becomes the client and the cops she once prosecuted are now after her with a vengeance. To prove her innocence, Bennie probes deep into the murder. Then another killing takes place. Running for her life, Bennie is a fugitive armed only with her wits and courage. She will find the real killer—or die trying.

  24. Cause of Death

    4.18

    #7 in the Kay Scarpetta Series

    On New Year's Eve, the last day of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War, Dr. Kay Scarpetta plunges into the murky depths of the Elizabeth River to recover the very human remains of Ted Eddings, an investigative reporter. Was Eddings probing the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? With the advent of a second murder—this one closer to home—the case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critical offensive weapons. Together they follow the trail of death to a well of violence as dark and forbidding as the water that swirled over Ted Eddings.

  25. The Burning Man

    4.12

    Peter Hale is a young attorney struggling to make his own mark in his father's venerable law firm when he is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. During the trial of a multimillion-dollar case, Peter's father, the lead counsel, suffers a heart attack and asks Peter to move for a mistrial until he's feeling better. Peter decides this is his only chance to prove to his father that he is the terrific lawyer he knows himself to be, and he chooses to carry on with the case against his father's wishes. In his zeal to prove himself, Peter neglects his client and ends up losing everything—the case, his job, and his father. Unemployed and disinherited, Peter takes the only job he is offered—that of a public defender in a small Oregon town. He hopes that if he can make good there, he can reinstate himself in his father's good graces. But his ambition again gets the best of him when he takes on a death-penalty case, representing a mentally retarded man accused of the brutal hatchet murder of a college coed. He's in way over his head, and it's only when Peter realizes that his greed and his ego may end up killing his client that he begins to understand what it really takes to be a good lawyer—and to become a man.